Silent Knight at Rising Force Festival. Photo by Linda Dunjey.

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Dethlahem were very relaxed on stage, perhaps a little too relaxed. “We really gotta get another drummer, aye?” members of band joked as their drummer had gone MIA a few times throughout the set. Their relaxed demeanor strikingly contrasted with the aggressive, fast-paced sounds of their thrash metal compositions. A sea of horns raised over peoples heads at the conclusion of the set clearly indicated the crowd’s enjoyment.

“We are here to give you a lesson on old school death metal” Suffer In Rot declared. Typically their lyrics revolve around extremely violent themes, however a stellar job was done in keeping the set PG resulting in hilarious title changes such as  Mothers Cake, If I tried Codral, Rotting Lunchbox and Beat feet complete with entertaining backstories that could see vocalist  John Ryan easily doubling as a comedian. Suffer In Rot are the masters of crowd engagement, evidenced by growing crowd as the set progressed. The end of the set saw half the crowd invited up on stage to the point where it appeared as though there were more people on stage than off!.

Without the protection of ear plugs Population Control’s wall of sound would definitely be enough to destroy eardrums! Their abrasive grindcore compositions characterised by blast beats, heavily distorted guitars, grinding bass and ear-piercing shrieks rang out as the lead vocalist jumped off stage and paced through the audience, daring people to engage.

The room had been in near total darkness for 6.5 hours by the time the raffle draw to win a Jackson JS11, for those who has purchased pre-sale tickets,had rolled around. It was not surprising to hear hisses of displeasure rumble throughout the crowd as the house lights were turned on. “Oh god! That’s what you all look like? Turn the light’s off!” event organiser and raffle announcer Stu McGill joked. While Vow to Conquer’s stage set up slightly delayed the raffle announcement, time was filled by passing the mic around for young audience members to tell jokes, it seems that the room was full of budding comedians! Massive congratulations to the winner of the new guitar. It pays to buy tickets early to events!

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Voyager at Rising Force Festival. Photo by Linda Dunjey.

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Smoke fog and a majestic opening track introduced Queensland’s Vow to Conquer to the stage. Technical difficulties may have plagued the first couple of songs, plunging lead vocalist, Slam, to near silence, however this did not deter a group of men to line the front row and windmill to the heavy metal tunes. Wearing influences such as Metallica, Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold clearly on their sleeves, they powered through their entertaining set.

Nucleust proved why they were this year’s winners of WAM’s best heavy song of the year as they tore through their set. Their sound is difficult to define due to their experimentation with several different musical styles, textures and instrumentation. The one thing for certain is that they are a brutal live experience, their ferocious vocals and technical prowess force you to pay attention. It is no wonder why they are making waves both nationally and internationally.

Silent Knight delivered absolutely everything that you could possibly expect from power metal: Theatrical, dramatic and powerful songs filled with fantasy based subject matter, soaring and melodic vocals, shredding guitar solos and thundering double kick drums. Keeping their between song banter to a minimum they inspired crowd interaction through encouraging mass sing-a-longs with call and response requests and motioning for clap alongs.

Voyager are a wonder to watch as they unleash their unique, atmospheric, melodic progressive metal on the crowd. Alex Cannion’s absence saw Josh Terlick filling in on bass, who did a fantastic job. The chemistry between band members as they hit every note perfectly left jaws on the floor. Well, almost perfectly, even a band as tight as Voyager are not immune to technical difficulties. Danny Estrin entertained the audience with musical interludes on his Keytar while waiting for the problem to be sorted.  “That’s it, isn’t there a curfew?” Estrin asked after the set came to an abrupt finish. The crowd refused to move and began chanting “One more song”, which encouraged the band to bring the night to a close with I Am The Revolution.

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AMNPLIFY – DB

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